Review: Midway is an entertaining World War II flick but not much more
The movie has an impressive ensemble cast, but lacks the writing to do its real-world events justice.
Midway is based entirely on real events during World War II, depicting major battles in the Pacific theatre of war. It largely focuses on the large-scale war between Japanese and American forces, and how tensions could have escalated to such a massively devastating outcome in Pearl Harbour. Also, it’s directed by Roland Emmerich. You know, the guy who directed such movies as Godzilla (1998), 10,000 BC and Independence Day: Resurgence. You probably know where I’m going with this.
Dunkirk, this ain’t
This is just another film to add to Roland Emmerich’s long list of ‘watch today, forget tomorrow’ movies. It lacks substance, any semblance of good writing and hardly lives up to the standards of other, better war films of recent years. This was apparently Emmerich’s passion project, and I can respect that. It’s a highly interesting portion of World War II, and there’s a lot to dissect within it - but any effort to do so misses the mark here.
First off, Midway has a really, really great cast. That much can’t be argued. You have the likes of Woody Harrelson, Patrick Wilson, Mandy Moore and so on, and they put on a good show. They just aren’t given much to DO here however, and stand out for star power alone.
Ed Skrein is horribly miscast as the main focus of the movie - putting on a bad boy swagger as unconvincing as his New Jersey accent. He just doesn’t seem to be a good fit for the lead role. Remember when Hollywood started casting Sam Worthington in everything, and then he disappeared off the face of the earth? Similar situation here.
Dunkirk was a great example of a World War II film that succeeded at placing equal focus on both its characters and the intense battlefields they fought through. You felt invested in these characters, and feared for their lives when they were being in the midst of war - purely because of the stellar writing and brilliant action setpieces. Midway is on the opposite set of the spectrum, mixing dull character writing with mediocre action scenes - resulting in a film that overall falls flat.
War never changes
Midway is reportedly the most expensive independent movie of all time, with a US$100 million dollar budget. That doesn’t explain the horrible technical effects, though. You’ll often see action scenes that lean hard into student film territory, with some really spotty CGI. That’s a real shame, especially when you consider the movie is around 70% explosions and sky-high dogfighting.
I’m not saying that the action is all-around bad, though. It can be intense at times, just not well-executed all the way through. All action scenes follow the same recipe of tropes and cliches though - character gets into action, almost dies, miraculously doesn’t die, and then gets into more action. That’s it, ad infinitum. There IS a right way to do that - see the John Wick series. Unfortunately, it just ends up feeling repetitive here.
The film spends a good amount of time setting up the political struggles of America and Japan leading up to the battle of Midway - a turning point in the Pacific theatre of war. If the script could actually carry this scenes, I would look at Midway in a much more favourable light, but it can’t. Every character here is trope-y, cheesy and all around cartoony. Nick Jonas is Nick Jonas, Ed Skrein plays the typical army hothead and Aaron Eckhart is around for one scene before disappearing into the void. What was the point of him? We’ll never know.
Verdict
For a two-and-a-half hour movie, I can at least say it’s paced well. Just when you’re starting to get bored, it throws an action scene at you. And then again, and again, and again. I mean - this is the story of one of the most complex and interesting chapters of World War II history. The way it’s presented though, makes me wonder if Roland Emmerich watched the original Midway (1976) and thought, “You know what this film needs? MORE explosions.”
Midway is an entertaining popcorn flick, but it’s about as deep as a puddle - in other words, it’s a Roland Emmerich film.
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